


Crossing the Line

by TVgirll1971



Category: Whiskey Cavalier (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:02:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26149903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TVgirll1971/pseuds/TVgirll1971
Summary: Susan is convinced that the Director of the NSA is responsible for the theft of highly classified information. Unfortunately, Will disagrees.
Kudos: 2





	Crossing the Line

**Author's Note:**

> I would place this story at Season 2. It could, at the very latest, be early Season 3. However, I think it works best as a Season 2 story.

The team was at the Dead Drop discussing their strategy to find William “Billy” Munoz, an NSA agent believed to have stolen a classified data file. 

“I still don’t think Munoz did this.” Susan declared, again.

“Susan,” Will replied, slightly exasperated. “We’ve been through this. The data file that was stolen from the NSA was taken from his work station the day he disappeared. We also have an incoming message to Agent Poole made from his phone.”

"Agent Poole." Standish pointed out, "the FBI stooge with ties to the Trust we took out last week."

“It doesn’t make sense.” Susan argued. “Billy Munoz comes from a working-class family—in fact, he put himself through school by working. There is nothing in his profile to indicate he’s resentful. By all accounts, he seems to be an honest, hardworking kid.”

“*Seems to be*.” Frankie noted. 

Susan shook her head. “His parents are immigrants with strong ties to the community, I don’t think he’d betray their ideals for profit.”

“Maybe it’s not about profit.” Standish spoke up. “He apparently stole intel on some top-secret NSA project. Maybe he saw something shady and decided to do something about it. Kind of like what I did.”

“You were a whistleblower. Munoz contacted an agent with ties to Ollerman.” Will argued.

“I don’t know.” Susan said. “Something just feels off. I’ve been hearing some chatter about Grant Foster.”

“Wait.” Will interjected, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “Grant Foster? The Director of the NSA?”

“I’ve been hearing some stuff about him. “

“Where?” he asked.

“Chatter boards.” she admitted, meekly. 

“Chatter boards.” Will repeated. “You visit chatter boards where they just *happen* to be discussing Foster?”

“Wait. What’s your deal with Grant Foster?” Standish asked Susan, picking up some vibes between her and Will. “I mean, I’ve heard stuff from my buddies at the NSA, but why do you care?”

Susan let out a frustrated sigh, “I was on the team that vetted him when he was nominated as NSA Director. I put in my report that I didn’t trust him. The profile I created painted him as a narcissistic elitist out for his own best interest. Unfortunately, since Foster was the son of a former Senator, I was overruled.”

Having been at the receiving end of Susan’s complaints about Foster before, Will shook his head. “There is nothing substantial linking Foster to this theft.”

“Still.” Frankie admitted. “He wouldn’t be the first Director of a federal agency to be dirty. What exactly are the rumors saying?”

“Well, the biggest red flags are his annual trips to China.” Susan answered. “I say we track him. See where he takes us."

"Based on his profile and the fact he likes to vacation in China?” Will responded. “Susan, we can't track the head of the NSA. At least not without hard evidence and we have none. We do, however, have evidence against Munoz. He contacted Poole He's our best lead."

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** **** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Unfortunately, that lead went nowhere. Well, specifically, it went to cabin in Virginia where Standish tracked Munoz’s phone. Munoz was there alright—his body stuffed in a freezer.

“Damn it!” Will blurted out when they found Munoz’s body. “Ollerman must’ve got to him.”

“Or Foster did.” Susan noted.

“Susan.” Will said with a frustrated sigh.

“It’s worth a shot.” Susan stated.

“No, it’s not.” Will insisted. “The man is Director of the NSA. We can’t start investigating him without probable cause and a hunch from you and some quacks on a message board is not probable cause.”

“So, we start from square one while our most likely suspect just roams around free?” Susan said, upset. 

“The most likely suspect according to who?” Will demanded. “You??”

“Will.” Frankie warned.

“I looked at Foster’s profile again.” Susan answered. “It has the same exact red flags as Ollerman’s!” 

“Oh, well, that changes everything!” Will said sarcastically.

“Will, stop!” Frankie demanded.

“No.” he answered. He looked at Susan and said, “You’ve had it in for Foster from the second he got instated as Director! I am not going to investigate the Director of the NSA just because you can’t admit you may have been wrong about him!” 

After Will stomped off, Frankie turned to Susan and said apologetically. “I’m sorry, Susan. He’s right. If we had more on Foster, yeah but, right now, it’s too much of a risk.”

Susan stood there stewing after Frankie walked away. They were wrong. They were all wrong and the fact that no one could see that infuriated her. Suddenly, she saw Standish and got an idea.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** **** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Susan sat there watching the video feed Standish sent to her laptop. It’d been a few days and the team was no closer to finding out who took the classified data. There’d been some promising leads but they went nowhere because Susan knew they were looking in the wrong place. Suddenly, she heard a knock. Susan quickly closed her laptop and answered the door where she saw Will.

"Sit down." Will said, as he barged into her place.

"Will?" she asked, confused.

"SIT DOWN!" he ordered, his face set like stone. “Standish called me today. He had a question about the surveillance on Foster that I apparently authorized.”

“I can explain.” she began

“Yes. Please, Explain this to me. Explain how someone goes from being one of the smartest people in the room to a complete idiot.”

“He’s guilty.” She said, standing up. “I thought if we could track his movements, find out what’s on his computer, we could find something…”

“So, you had Standish hack his cellphone, computer, and any surveillance videos where you could watch him.” Will ran his hair through his hair and continued "“Do you have any idea how many laws you’re breaking right now? I *explicitly* told you we weren’t going after Foster, but instead of accepting that, you decide to hole up like some conspiracy kook and spy on the head of the NSA! Not only that but you rope Standish into helping you!”

“I had to do something.” she persisted. “You were wrong.”

"You don't get to decide that! Jesus, Susan! I'm the leader of this team. Me and Frankie. Okay, not you!"

"So, my expertise doesn't matter?" she asked, petulantly. 

"Of course, it does! But it's MY decision; not yours! You don’t get to take advantage of our friendship by going behind my back because you know as your best friend, you can get away with it!"

"I wasn't trying to get away with anything! I was--you were making a mistake."

“Stop!” he yelled. he shut his eyes for a moment, then pointed to her laptop and added. “Show’s over. I’m shutting this down now. You’re off this mission.”

“You can’t…” she began in a raised voice.

“Yes. I can.” He said, firmly.

“Oh, my God” she blurted out. “You’re not even trying to…”

“Enough! It’s over. Stop trying to spin this. It’s pathetic and beneath you, so just stop!”

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** **** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

The next day, Susan sat in Ray’s office where she unloaded about Will taking her off the mission. “Can you believe it?” she asked as she concluded her tirade.

"Honestly?” Ray answered. “I think Will's right."

"Excuse me?" she asked, slightly outraged.

"Will's team leader. Well, him and Frankie. That means their orders stand. You went against orders."

"His orders were wrong!" she argued.

"Based on what? your opinion?" he changed his tone. "Let me ask you this--if this wasn't Will. If this was any other team leader, would you've made the same call?”

"Well, I, no, I don’t…" she sputtered.

"Will's your best friend. I get it, but, but at the end of the day, his decision goes. You can't countermand it just because you think you're right. That's not how it works. You crossed the line. And the thing is, you’ve been an agent long enough to know that."

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** **** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

“I was thinking,” Frankie said to Will in his office. “Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to look into Foster.” Off his exasperated look, she continued. “I’ve seen the chatter Susan was talking about—a lot of it seems credible. He’s definitely worth a look.”

“I am *not* giving credence to her lame brained theory.” Will said, vehemently to Frankie. “Not after the stunt she pulled.”

“Just because you don’t like what she did, doesn’t mean she’s wrong, Will.” Frankie replied. “*Someone* stole classified Intel from the NSA. Shouldn’t we follow any lead we have to find out who?” In a gentle tone, she added. “I’m not suggesting we go all in like she did. I’m just saying maybe we should have Standish do a deep background check. See if there’s anything fishy there.”

Will sighed, “Fine.”

Days later, Standish entered the pool room beaming. "Frankie, Will. Big news. I think it was Foster after all." 

"What?” Frankie asked in surprise.

“Well, first I did a deep dive in his finances. Nothing overt struck out, however, I did some more digging and found a hidden account in the Caymans linked to his wife. I don’t know where exactly the money is coming from that’s going to that account, but it’s definitely Asia. Also, you remember the message on Poole’s phone—how whoever called him used a voice scrambler?”

"You unscrambled it." Frankie deduced.

"No. But I downloaded a bunch of messages that Munoz’s mom received from him. The speech patterns, the rhythm, the cadence, everything was completely different. There is no way the person who called Poole was Billy Munoz."

"So, Munoz was set up," Will declared.

“Looks that way.” Standish declared. “So, I figured I’d compare Foster’s voice and it was a match.”

Frankie looked at Will. “Will. This is more than enough to look into Foster.”

Will nodded. “You’re right. Okay, we’ll look into the footage Standish has already collected. See if anything pops up.”

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** **** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

“Okay, so what do we know?” Will asked the team later at the Dead Drop.

Standish started off. “Well, we know that secret account set up in Foster’s wife name has never been accessed from her laptop. It has been from his though.” 

“We also were able to link certain terrorist attacks committed by the Trust to programs connected to the NSA.” Jai reported. “Nothing obvious, mind you, but enough to raise some concerns.”

“I talked to some people at the Bureau.” Ray added. “Foster does seem to be on some people’s radar. Unfortunately, everything’s been conjecture.”

“There’s also his traveling.” Frankie stated. “I had Standish see if he could link Foster to areas where Ollerman had been spotted in the past year. Foster was seen in New York, Boston, and San Francisco. However, airline tickets purchased in his name were for different locations. In other words, he lied about where he was going.”

“So, we can connect him to the Trust.” Will ascertained. “What about Munoz’s death?”

“Well, you know how Munoz got a call the day he disappeared from a burner phone?” Standish asked the group. “Now, obviously, we couldn’t trace the burner phone because it was dumped. However, Foster’s head of the NSA—there’s no way he can just shut his personal phone off for an entire day. So, I traced the location of his phone.”

“You got a hit?” Ray guessed.

"Yep.” Standish replied. “His cellphone registered with a tower at Springfield, VA. I checked the Highway cams and” he began typing on his computer. “There he is---8:14 pm on the Springfield Interchange, going back to DC."

“Trouble is, we can’t prove where he’s coming back from.” Frankie noted.

“Not exactly,” Jai spoke up. “But we know the location of the cabin. Maybe check…”

“”The highway camera closest to the cabin.” Standish finished for him. “Of course. Why didn’t I think of that?” After a few minutes, Standish beamed “Got it! There he is, turning off the exit to where Munoz’s body was found. We can’t prove that he was actually at the cabin...”

“No,” Will said. “But it’s close enough. Trouble is, someone this high profile…” he began, looking at Ray.

Ray nodded. “I’ll get us a meeting with Director Casey.”

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** **** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

"Will." Susan said, surprised to see Will at her door.

“Can I come in?” Will asked.

“Of course.” She said, letting him inside.

"You were right.” He said, without preamble. “Foster was the leak. People were asking questions about the NSA so he framed Munoz. You were right, I was wrong.” Taking a breath, he added, “However,"

"That doesn't condone what I did." Susan finished for him. "You were right. You're team leader. You make the decisions on how we do things. I had no right going behind your back. It was totally disrespectful and I apologize."

"Apology accepted." he said, though it was clear from his tone that he was still hurt. "But, Susan, this can't happen again. If you're going to be on this team, you need to..."

"Respect your authority,”' she finished for him. Unable to look him in the eye, she continued. "I know. Nothing like this will ever happen again. I promise." Looking up meekly, she added. “Friends again?"

With a small smile, Will responded. "We never stopped being friends, Susan. I was just upset, that's all." Seeing how worried she looked, his smile grew warmer and he pulled her into a hug. "Come here. Besties?"

With tears in her eyes and a smile on her face, she responded. "Besties."

**Author's Note:**

> I've wanted to see Susan buck Will's authority for a while. Most of the inspiration for this fic came from Scandal: 
> 
> Most of the dialogue between Will and Susan, the idea of Billy being found dead at the cabin and the scene regarding the voice mail was taken from Scandal - ep. 5.10."It's Hard Out There for a General." (2016) Additional Will/Susan dialogue came from Scandal ep 5.14 "I See You." (2016). The Director of the NSA being seen on the Virginia Interchange was taken from ep 6.5 "They all Bow Down". (2017)


End file.
